The Curse of Being Popular
by FluffleNuff
Summary: Temari made assumptions when she arrived in Konoha High, turning to bullying to help her social status rise. But as luck will have it, she is paired with intelligent, funny Shikamaru for a project, and they get close. Is she willing to trade in everything she's had simply for a boy in Biology class?


**A/N: **Thank you for clicking on this story! I'm kind of embarrassed by what my 14-year-old self has done to my fanfiction account, so I'm trying to redeem it with this story! Here goes! :D

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><p>"Wow." I mocked, my voice sarcastic as I sneered at the girl in front of me. "I think they call it 'Monday Blues' because of the disgusting choices of clothes you make on Monday. Oh wait, make that everyday."<p>

It wasn't that witty of an insult, okay fine, it was really brainless and more likely to be seen in some "Mean Girls" movie, but the girls flanking my left and right burst out in giggles. That was the thing about them. Well, us. They... We always sounded so innocent in our giggles, as if we were but talking about a cute guy, or maybe about a new pet dog, never sounding like we were laughing at someone else's misfortune. The girl's eyes flashed in fear, shivering a little.

"What's the matter?" Sakura spat, "Why do you look so afraid? We won't hurt you..." She cooed, but a malicious smirk was adorned on her face. _Back off,_ I wanted to tell her. Then with a sinking feeling, I remembered. I started this. What right did I have to tell them to lay off?

The girl clamped her mouth shut, grabbing her books out of the locker and stuffing them into her bag before running off, not fast enough to prevent me from seeing the tears forming in her opalescent eyes.

"Hey Loser, that's the bathroom, idiot! First period is that way!" Ino called out, laughing. Finally, the queen bee spoke. When I had first stepped through the doors of Konoha High, I thought I knew what to expect. After all, I was the new kid, the nerd, the pushover. I knew that the cheerleaders pushed everyone that they didn't like around, not afraid to lash out at them. What I didn't expect, though, and definitely didn't know was that within mere hours of being in school, I was approached by their queen, but the opposite from what I'd thought happened.

"Hmm. Where are you from?" She asked, emotionless, cocking her head and letting her perfect platinum blonde hair cascade down her shoulder.

"Oh. Umm. Suna." I choked out, my heart racing. I tensed my muscles, ready to take off at any moment.

"Suna? Sounds... Exotic." She stated, her eyes scanning me from head to toe. After her once-over, her eyes softened, and she smiled. Truly, genuinely, her smile made her eyes crease into crescent moons, making her look appealing and approachable. "We're having trials for the new squad later. You should come. We could use someone like you."

I could not believe my ears. What? This was totally not the reaction I had expected from her when I first saw her. Wait, did that mean, I was in the 'In' crowd now? Me, a newbie? Wow.

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><p>"Next! What's your- oh it's you." Ino called, then smiled warmly. "So you decided to try out for the squad, huh? Show me what you've got."<p>

Now I may not have known how to do gymnastics for the life of me, but I once went through a modern dance class, so I hit the floor with all I had. Pops, waves, cartwheels, praying, hoping that I had impressed her. And apparently, I did.

"Wow, you're good." She mused, and smiled.

I felt myself grinning back at her. I begged my mum not to bring me to this school after hearing all the bad rumours about it, wanting to stay in the comfortable, supportive structure Suna High worked so hard to build. However, we had no choice. Staying in Suna meant being separated from our Dad, so we picked ourselves up and braced ourselves for the new environment.

"Here, practice starts from tomorrow at 4. See you there!" Ino handed me a set of neatly folded green and white uniform, and my eyes widened a little. Just like that?

"Would I fit?" The words slipped out before I could stop them. It was a good thing that they were misunderstood.

"No doubts about it, I know a size 2 when I see one." Her eyes creased again as she smiled at me, and I found myself mirroring her expression. I would fit in. Not just in my uniform, but in the squad, in the school. I belonged.

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><p>"Good morning class." Ms Kurenai greeted us, snapping me out of my nostalgic memories.<p>

"I am very excited to announce a new project! Mainly, it is a project of your choice, related to Biology that you will be working on for the next two months, both at home and here in school." Eyes lit up around the room.

"Yes, that means that you can do almost anything, and that you can use Biology lessons to discuss your project." Cheers erupted. We all knew what 'discussing' truly meant.

"I will be choosing your partners for you for this project."  
>Protests rang out from the class, and I was no different. What? An assigned partner? How was I supposed to keep up my 'popular girl' aura if I have to work with someone I hardly knew? Especially not on this project! The class tried its best to change Ms Kurenai's mind, but she started reading pairings from a list, and gradually, it sank in that we were not going to get our way.<p>

"Temari Sabaku and Shikamaru Nara."

My first reaction was to think, 'Who the hell is Shikamaru?' and look around to scan all the faces around me. No one was making eye contact with me, though, so I was still unsure about who this Shikamaru person was.

"Alright, now that you're all assigned, you can use the rest of this lesson to discuss about your projects. Go on."

With some prompting, the classroom then filled with the screeching of chairs being moved as people shifted reluctantly to sit next to their assigned partner.

"Sakura!" I hissed, and she whipped around to face me. "Who is Shikamaru Nara?"

She shrugged and scanned the room once, before shrugging again. I sighed and walked up to Ms Kurenai.

The teachers were aware of some sort of hierarchy in our school, but they did not know that we actually bullied others. Added to my impressive Biology grades, I thanked God that Ms Kurenai wouldn't have a personal grudge against me.

"So sorry to disturb, Ms Kurenai, but may I ask, who is Shikamaru Nara?" I layered on my most charming smile and may have batted my eyelashes a few too many times.

Ms Kurenai gazed at me through her tortoiseshell frames, and I felt like an amoeba floating in a microscope. Her gaze was pretty withering.

"That's the young gentleman seated near the front."

Well, great going. The moment I turned around, I could clearly spot the only guy sitting alone, his mouth curled up in a smirk, arms folded as he watched me bemusedly, waiting to be identified as my partner. I blushed in embarrassment and hastily thanked Ms Kurenai before pulling my chair to sit next to him.

On closer examination, I realised that he was actually quite cute. He had black, spiky hair held up in a short ponytail, smooth skin and narrow eyes that danced with mischief behind thick black spectacles. Although I would never have admitted it, he was just my type.

"What's wrong Princess? Too caught up in your little bubble that you don't even know who I am?" He teased, even inserting a little wink at the end. Like I said, I would never have admitted it.

"Well, it's pretty hard to keep track of all the nerds in school." I shot back, smiling sweetly.

He grasped his chest exaggeratedly, and widened his eyes. "I am greatly hurt by your words, Princess. And while I'd love to engage you in a battle of wits, yours questionable of course, we do have a project to finish and unfortunately, I am your project partner." He took out his Bio textbook from his bag.

"This, my dear Princess, is a TEXTBOOK, something that we nerds go to when we need information."

I wanted to giggle. It was funny, really. Did he think I'd never studied in my life? Oh please, he wouldn't even be able to last a day in Suna, studying there was unimaginably tedious. And here he was, taunting me like that. Well, since expectations have been set, why not meet them?

"What?" I questioned in the dumbest voice I could muster. "Don't we have google for that?" I scratched my head and started to examine the textbook like I've never seen one before.

I could sense his exasperation and smiled to myself. This was going to be fun.

"So how does this go, Princess? You gonna pay me a hundred bucks to finish the project by myself and get you an A?"

That's it, I don't pay people to do my projects, Sakura and I actually work for it. That is the only reason that I obtained my high grade in Biology, through hard work.

"No, I intend to work with you on this project to get an A plus."

"Whoah, Princess, are you serious? Wanna make a bet with me? Fifty bucks saying you don't make a significant contribution to the project." He smiled mischievously, obviously thinking that I would be losing fifty dollars to my ego. Not this time, buddy.

"You're on. You're so on."

The rest of the lesson was spent over petty arguments and making arrangements to meet at his house for our first project meeting.

"You okay? You're smiling like a fool." Sakura confronted me after class had ended.

"Huh? Yeah, I'm alright. Just, my partner is pretty interesting."

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><p>"Nara! Naraaaaaa!" I yelled, irritated as I had been ringing the doorbell for the umpteenth time.<p>

"The door is unlocked!" He hollered back, sounding equally irritated. Sheepishly, I reached out and turned the door knob, smacking my head with my palm when I realised that it opened easily. Oh well.

I entered the living room, and immediately felt at a loss for what to do. Was I supposed to go look for him? Or? I decided to just wait at the door, lest I do something deemed impolite. I looked around at the cheery caramel-coloured walls, and smiled. The walls were decorated with pictures of him, his parents and siblings, and the house was relatively tidy (at least compared to my own).

"Well, you look awkward." I spun around at Shikamaru's lazy drawl, and shot him a glare. Well, what was I supposed to do?

"I am." I stated lamely, then observed him more closely. He had a towel around his neck, and beads of water hung onto the ends of his hair, which branched into spiked ends because of the liquid. Oh wait, it was already spiky, wasn't it?

"What? You left me standing outside because you were having a... Shower?"

"I'm sorry princess, we can't all stay as naturally perfect as you do." He said sarcastically and I laughed in exasperation.

"Alright, whatever. Let's get this started." I said then waited as he led me to the study, and we both sat down at his desk.

"Okay, so Biology... What do you want to do this project on?" I opened my mouth to reply, but he leaned closer and narrowed his eyes. "Have you even heard of Biology?"

I held a hand up. I had enough of this. "Did you know that a ribosome attached to the Endoplasmic Reticulum synthesizes proteins to be used outside the cell while free ribosomes synthesize proteins for usage in a cell?"

His eyebrows lifted off his head in surprise. "How do you know that? That's two chapters later!"

"I learnt that two years ago, Nara." I said smugly, crossing my arms. "Where I come from, the workload of the gifted classes is considered light."

He started to splutter and open and shut his mouth, ridiculously resembling a gaping fish.

I chuckled then pulled out my textbook, which sent him into another fit of spluttering as he saw the amount of notes that I had written in there.

"You have a brain?" He asked, eyes widening, and I wanted to laugh again.

"Yes, Nara, I have a brain."

I almost expected him to start knocking on my skull to confirm that it was not empty.

"Anyway, I was thinking we could do something along the lines of animal husbandry? I know it's pretty simple, but I really want to raise an animal, document its habits, okay fine maybe I just want an excuse for a pet." I started to rattle on, then stopped as I felt him staring at me.

"What?" I asked, subconsciously wiping at my face to see if there was anything on it.

"You have a heart?" He asked, eyes widened even further.

"Yes Nara, I have a h-" I chuckled, but stopped myself. Did I have a heart? I mean, duh, there is something beating away in my chest but I meant on an emotional level. I lead the verbal abuse, sometimes physical abuse. I watch as the poor girls cringe away from me and I smirk in their faces. Could I really go around telling people that I actually had a heart?

Did I have a heart?

Shikamaru kept quiet during my emotional inner battle, but spoke up and snapped me out of it.

"Okay, so animal husbandry. Any ideas?"

"What about Silkworms?" I asked, getting a little excited. "We could make something out of the silk! I could knit a bit of cloth or something..." I said, deep in thought.

"You know knitting is complicated, right? It's not like make up, you need focus and discipline." Shikamaru tried to dissuade me.

"Relax Nara, I know how to knit. Just because I'm a cheerleader it does not mean I'm dumb, or heartless,or only interested in make up. You have got to stop applying these stereotypes to me."

Shikamaru shook his head emphatically. "No Temari, you have got to stop applying these stereotypes to yourself."

I swallowed, looking away as he started tapping on the computer for a silkworm farm.

Yeah, I have to stop.


End file.
